Finishing touches – Frisket

Back to the black-backgrounded hibiscus painting ….

I’m looking at the painting and see that I haven’t removed the Frisket. Frisket is a latex based liquid which is applied on with a brush, a stick or a pen. Once dry, it is no longer water soluble. It provides a resist area where it has been applied. When the painting is all finished, this rubbery substance can be rolled off either with an eraser like pad sold especially for this purpose, or just by rubbing it with your finger.

I’ve done this on my painting now and there are two pistils and all their furry things with dots at the end of them showing in stark white where the Frisket was removed. I need to integrate these into the painting. I want to keep the highlight, but I also want to make a transition between the rest of the painting and this white area.

If you look carefully on the fuschia pink flower where the pistil meets the centre of the flower, you can see the frisketed part that goes into the centre is painted black at the bottom. It was too long and originally went past the centre. Frisket areas – even if you have made a mistake in drawing it – is relatively easy to rectify. Once the black tip of my frisketing has been painted in, the pistil once again appears to issue from the centre.

With a fine brush – a number one or number 2 round with a good point – I painted a light tint of the main colour of the flower – both on the cadmium red pistil and on the fuschia pink pistil. I paint the yellow tips in and the red ones at the end. I leave little bits of white – not many – to ensure there is a sparkle about these highlighted details.